FBI searches L.A. coast for al Qaeda crew, cache

Washington Times ^ | 6/18/02 | Bill Gertz

[kattracks]

Federal authorities have been searching for a merchant ship carrying a group of al Qaeda terrorists and a large cache of weapons that is believed to be headed for Los Angeles, The Washington Times has learned.

The FBI has been investigating an intelligence report about the ship and a group of up to 40 al Qaeda terrorists on board for the past several weeks, but it has been unable to find the vessel or any similar plot, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials.

[kstewskis]

I heard Sean Hannity briefly mention this tonight on Hannity and Colmes.

Catalina Island looks right at San Pedro and the LA Harbor, a site for oil refineries and tankers. Explosions, or whatever stunts they would pull here could be very dangerous..

[norton]

There is also a whole lot of small craft traffic between the island and mainland:
you could wind-surf in from 20 miles out and no one would look twice.
Forty Ski-Doos, line abreast, driven by guys in dynamite shirts just might be taken as unusual even by local standards.

Actual distance is about 26 miles, Catalina is visible from several elevations throughout the LA area.

[goody2shooz]

...we are going to surprise...in a place where it is not expecting...

Santa Catalina sounds like a red herring. A freighter there would stand out among the yachts like an goony bird among sparrows.

I'm going to take the guy's word at face value and suggest someplace like Portland, Oregon. No oil refineries but lots of natural gas storage tanks in northwest Portland, right on the banks of the Williamette River. Ought to make one hell of a fireball.

And then there's the Trojan Nuclear Plant on the Columbia River. It is closed down and all the spent fuel has been removed but hey, how would they know that!

[sailor4321]

Nevertheless, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for 40 guys in thobes, gutras and agaals....

Actually, with the left wing goonies' work at disarming the civilian population here in Kalifornia, this might be one of the "safer" places for them to work.

[kstewskis]

Forty Ski-Doos, line abreast, driven by guys in dynamite shirts just might be taken as unusual even by local standards.

I just pictured a hilarious visual of 40 "sand goblins" on Ski-Doos, negotiating the south swell chop and great whites that frequent the channel. Ha! Even if they did it on Zodiacs, they'd be bouncing like ping pong balls all over the place!

[niki]

San Onfre nuclear power plant in So. Cal sits on a beach. One of the past threads about lax security at these plants, has a picture of a surfer walking right next to the plant and basically the plant had no real security from the water side of the plant.

[WarSlut]

The Diablo Canyon nuke plant is also on the beach, in San Luis Obispo...

[fivecatsandadog]

Santa Catalina sounds like a red herring. A freighter there would stand out among the yachts like an goony bird among sparrows.

Mexico. Middle of the night, small shore craft shuttles them to beach. They disperse into small groups (4 or 5) and eventually cross the border with the rest of the illegals. Lots of these M.E. men could pass for Mexican.

[KirklandJunction]

"FBI unable to find the vessel or any similar plot"

Yeah team.

[Fred Mertz]

Here's the alleged news article discussing the alleged 40 terrorists in some ship somewhere aiming to attack Los Angeles.

[KirklandJunction]

You gave me a beautiful image.

Terrorists trying to come ashore through a typical line-up of local surfers.

"Cut me off dude, and you're friggin' shark bait NOW, m.f!

The terrorists would never get as far as dry sand......

[Nexus]

I willing to bet the cashe is 40 belt bombs, just in time for July 4th.

This reminds me of a daydream I had a few weeks ago concerning the upcoming holiday. Imagine the top 20 largest July 4th celebrations with two homicide bombers each. What is really odd for me anyway is I really was running these exact numbers at the time through my head - 40 bombers, 20 cities. I'm a little weirded out right now...

[Elkiejg]

Hope someone points them in the direction of Stiesands (sp?) compound.

[PoppingSmoke]

"FBI searches L.A. coast for al Qaeda crew, cache"

Must be the Monday Terrorist Flavor of the week? Whats next, US Searches for Terrorist submarine crew? The point is this is a big Country. If you wanted to, you can lose a small army here. However, if we continue this Terrorist Flavor of the week crap, one day no one is going to listen. Then the bio-solid will hit the fan!

[Nexus]

Shouldn't this incident elevate the terror level at least a notch, if not all the way. I mean, 40 al Qaeda terrorists with possible weapons have just invaded our shores!!! What exactly does it take?

[mikhailovich]

None of these published threats have amounted to anything. The ones to worry about are the ones we hear nothing about. Why spend the time, research, recruits, and the money to advertise an attack? I believe Al-Queda is smarter than this.

[Nexus]

I believe this particular threat to be more serious than the vague garbage we've been hearing over the last few months. The intelligence report (prob CIA) is extremely detailed, and frankly, I don't trust the FBI to follow up on it with any real success.

BTW, Didn't the original blurb last night on Hannity/Drudge state that the FBI/CIA was tracking the boat, and then lost it?

[Nexus]

Wait, I forgot that the government has cried wolf too many times so I'm not supposed to take this seriously. I apologize...

[PoppingSmoke]

"The ones to worry about are the ones we hear nothing about."

Right on target and there are plenty of those!